Tuesday, 17 May 2016

To mark the first graduation ceremony of 2016 the Carnival collection of Victoria student graduation programmes is now live on the NZETC.

The collection contains official ceremony programmes, revue performance scripts and other capping ephemera from 1903 to 1993. Interestingly the early performances included songs in Te Reo Māori.

Victoria's graduation ceremony was initially known as 'capping day' before becoming a week long celebration. Like today a formal capping parade and ceremony was held which was then followed by a student revue performance.

The first Carnival began with a performance at the Sydney Street schoolroom in 1903 and soon moved to the Town Hall. By the 1950s productions were held at the Wellington Opera House. A notable feature of the student revue performance were songs that teased the University and lecturers. In later years the targets of these songs included local and national personalities.